


The Renegade

by longforthepast



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:55:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29632194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longforthepast/pseuds/longforthepast
Summary: Eddie's relatively normal life is thrown into chaos when the police decide to look into reports of a monster slicing and dicing its way through the San Francisco Underworld. While he's content to lay low and let the police's attention drift away from him, Vee and the people he is investigating are determined to force him into the spotlight.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	The Renegade

Eddie’s knee bounced despite his best efforts to make it not as he sat in the plastic chair of the police station waiting room. He had leaned on it, he had crossed his ankle to his knee, he had gone through his notes and his emails. Twice. So he continued to bounce his knee. 

_ “Stop it,” _ Vee said, taking control and forcibly stopping his leg from bouncing. 

_ “Thank you,”  _ Eddie said.  _ “Do you think they’ll give us the files soon?” _

_ “Given your record with these assholes,”  _ Vee said,  _ “we’ll be lucky if we get them before the next millennium.”  _ Eddie crossed his arms and leaned back releasing a deep sign as he did so. Could he have done this online? Yep. Was he going to? Nope. 

_ “It would have been a better use of your time to stare at a blank document on your computer and waited for divine inspiration.” _

_ “Parasite.” _

_ “Don’t have any better response? You’re supposed to be the one in this partnership who’s good with words.” _

_ “Why do I put up with you?” _

_ “Free healthcare.” _

The door banged open, causing Eddie to jerk upright and prepared to fight whatever came through the door. Fortunately, the man who came through the door couldn’t have been less threatening if he’d been in heart print boxers. Eddie sat back down, watching as the string bean of a man ran up to the counter and began talking to the officer sitting there. 

“No officer please, I need your help, it's after me,” he said. Eddie leaned over as subtly as possible, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on. The man’s eyes were darting around like he was expecting the person after him to be standing next to him any second. 

“Sir, it’s alright. What’s after you?” The officer behind the counter said. 

“The monster! The demon that ate my friends!” By this point, the man was almost sobbing and Eddie was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. 

_ “Did we–” _

_ “Maybe.”  _ A pit opened up in Eddie’s stomach. Had this man have been one of the people at the warehouse that night prior that they’d been spying on? One of the representatives for the distributor had spotted Eddie moving in the rafters and had opened fire. They’d been forced to defend themselves and while they were relatively sure that none of the people there had seen Eddie’s face clearly, there was always a lingering bit of doubt that clawed at their memory.

“Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll have someone out shortly to take a statement and assess if you need protection.” The officer pointed to the waiting area, half full with other people who had been told the same thing. Eddie sat upright and looked around as if he hadn’t just been listening in. 

“No,” the man shrieked, scrambling against the desk like he was trying to push through it.”No, no, no you can’t let him anywhere near me!” 

_ “Shit.”  _ Eddie smiled uncomfortably, looking to the officer behind the counter to gauge his reaction. Fortunately, the officer looked to be as confused as Eddie was. 

“Uh, hi,” he said. “Don’t suppose I ruined your life with a story?”  
“No, but you ended my partners!”

“Now sir, we don’t go around making unfounded accusations. Eddie may be a pain in our ass but he’s no monster.” The officer finally stood up from behind the desk. “Can you resolve this or am I going to have to call for backup?”  
“Don’t worry about it,” Eddie said, collecting his backpack from under his seat. “I’ll come back tomorrow. Can you keep the file request open for me?” 

“Sorry Eddie, but you know that in-person requests are only good for that day.” The officer gave a slight smile. “Why don’t you ever do online requests?”  
“Because last time I did that I was sent my own arrest record instead of what I requested!” Eddie called back as he pushed out the door and onto the blinding cold light of the street. 

_ “We screwed up,”  _ Eddie said.

_ “We could just eat that man and there will be no more problem.”  _

_ “Pretty sure that’ll make us suspect number one  _

_ “Then we’ll eat whoever comes to investigate us.”  _

_ “Or we could chill for a few weeks, eat some more beans and fish and I can try to convince Anne to make fudge again?” _

_ “Fine,”  _ Vee said.  _ “Can we go fishing in the Bay?”  _

_ “Probably,”  _ Eddie said as he turned the corner to Mrs. Chen’s store. 

He faltered and paused before continuing at a slightly faster pace than he had originally been walking at.  _ “Do you see anyone?”  _

_ “No,”  _ Vee replied, peeking their head out of the back of Eddie’s collar.  _ “There is no one watching us.”  _ Eddie pushed into Mrs. Chen’s store and leaned his head back against the door.

“You look worse than usual,” she said, still looking at her magazine from behind the counter. 

“Really,” Eddie said, looking over, “Because I actually combed my hair this morning.”

“You look stressed, have you been taking care of yourself?”

“Yes.”

“No, he hasn’t,” Vee said, poking their head out of Eddie’s jacket. Mrs. Chen gave Eddie a disapproving look and shook her head as Eddie picked up a basket and shuffled back into the aisles of the store. 

“What’s wrong Eddie?” Mrs. Chen asked as he picked up his third family-size jar of peanut butter for the week.

“Uh, you know how we, you know–”

“Eat people?”

“Yeah. Uh, so someone apparently saw us last night and now the police might be looking for us and someone is definitely following us.” 

“Oh Eddie,” Mrs. Chen said. She closed her magazine and set it down on the counter. “How do you get yourself into these situations?”

Eddie opened his mouth to respond only for Mrs. Chen to hold her hand up. “Don’t answer that.”

“We’ll be fine, we promise,” Eddie said. The bell above the door jingled. “This isn’t anything I haven’t had to deal with before.”  
Mrs. Chen nodded to the neatly groomed man in a suit who had walked in before turning back to Eddie. “But at this scale? Eddie if you ever need help or even just someplace else to stay let me know. I’m sure my cousin wouldn’t mind taking you in for a few days.”

“Thanks for the offer Mrs. C, but I wouldn’t want to put anyone else at risk in case I am in any danger.” He placed his items on the counter for Mrs. Chen to quickly scan. Once she’d finished and he’d paid, he turned to leave. 

“Eddie,” she said. He looked back over his shoulder for a moment. “Be careful.”

“We will,” Eddie said with a knowing smile, his eye marbling over black and white for a split second. 

It began to drizzle as they stepped out of the store, both unable to shake the feeling of being watched. As they turned up the hill towards their apartment, the bells on the shop door behind them jangled and someone called out. 

“Sir!” he said, “Sir you forgot these!” Eddie turned back to see the man who had come in when he was talking to Mrs. Chen running out of the store.”You forgot your waffles.” He held out the plastic bag containing two boxes of frozen waffles. Eddie paused, not entirely sure that he’d picked up waffles on this trip, before taking the bag. 

“Thanks,” he said, giving a tight-lipped smile to the man and turned back the way he was walking. “Hey wait.”

“Yes?” the man said. Eddie looked at him again. His hair was shaved close to his head and his eyes were alarmingly light. 

“Have we met?” 

“Don’t think so,” he replied, “Dr. Leopold Stryke. I’m a researcher at the Point Reyes Marine Institute.”

“Nice. I’m Eddie Brock,” Eddie replied. He stuck out his hand to shake the doctor’s hand. 

“Ah, that’s why you looked familiar,” Stryke replied, taking Eddie’s hand. “My brother really likes your work.” 

“Thanks, I uh, I appreciate that.” Eddie stood up a little straighter as a tingle ran up his spine. “Look, I’ve got to get going but I’ll see you around.”

“See you around Mr. Brock. Have a good evening.” Eddie watched as Stryke walked back to Mrs. Chen’s store before turning to go home. 

_ “I don’t like him _ ,” Vee said. 

“And why is that?” Eddie asked. He turned into the alley that connected to the one behind his building. Two years ago he wouldn’t have taken this route, especially with groceries, as there was an 8-foot fence in the middle of it. Now, he ceded control to Vee as he approached it, who then propelled them to the top of a dumpster and over the chain-link with ease. The shock to Eddie’s knees upon landing would have been jarring, if not for Venom strengthening the ligaments and tendons he had nearly destroyed with a wrestling career spanning high school and the first two and a half years of college. 

_ “Bad vibes,”  _ Vee answered as Eddie stumbled, control of his legs suddenly returned to him. 

“That’s fair. He kind of looked like that asshole who was gonna shoot me in the forest before you ate him,” Eddie said. He walked up to the back door of the building and input his pin. There was a mechanical buzz and the door unlocked. “He’s probably cool though.” 

_ “Not sure,”  _ Vee said, worry tinting both of their minds. Eddie sent a pulse of comfort as he started up the stairs. 

“Look, we don’t have to be friends with him, but until we have more information let's at least be civil to him.” 

_ “Fine _ ,” Vee grumbled, passing Eddie his keys as Eddie stepped onto the landing for the fifth floor. They rolled somewhere near Eddie’s lungs, still trying to lose the sensation of being watched. The door creaked open, hinges never quite the same after the first fight they’d been in before Vee closed it behind them. Eddie dropped the bags on the counter and sat down on one of the barstools the Life Foundation’s insurance had replaced his broken ones with. 

“What are we doing?” Eddie asked. Vee bubbled out of his skin and rest heavily on their host’s shoulders in what Eddie had come to understand as a hug. 

“Something good,” Vee said, pulling forth the memories of people able to stay in their apartments because the landlord had had a sudden change of heart that was certainly not a result of a solid week of late-night window stalking. Of the young teen who had been just looking to make money, not knowing that the job they were about to meet an interviewer for was a trap to lure her into trafficking and was now helping the local animal shelter. They did a lot of good. Eddie smiled and put his hand on Vee where they lay. 

“Let’s just hope the police don’t find out about all the good we do.” Eddie reached up to put the jar of peanut butter on the top shelf. Vee hummed in agreement and used a tendril to pass the pack of tortillas they bought to Eddie. 

“We will not let them hurt us,” Vee said. 

“Nope, Eddie smiled.


End file.
